Love Mindfulness

It may seem strange to welcome negative, destructive emotions. Isn't it right to be afraid of acting on such unwholesome impulses? Once on a silent meditation retreat, I noticed that I had taken a dislike to another woman. I had never spoken to her, or even met her before. Where was this ill-will was coming from? After a while, the penny dropped. In physical appearance, she remi...

Something different had replaced that old, harsh script: " stupid idiot! "  Ten minutes after parking in the new-to-me, cheaper car park, I was no closer to buying my ticket. I'd considered myself organised for downloading the parking app beforehand. But now I was failing, on repeat, to verify my bank card. Cue an urgent call to my partner at home to look up a password. That did...

It was a battle to compete with the wall of sound, and we were the losers. It wasn't what I'd expected! The lack of response stung. Looking back, I saw that my expectations of the occasion had been unrealistic. In fact, they were the main cause of the hurt I felt. In my mind's eye, the party guests were going to pause their conversations and gather around. As we donned our gui...